This invention relates to an escalator system with a convertible step unit and, more particularly, to an escalator system having convertible steps for receiving thereon a wheel chair or the like for the handicapped.
The examples of the conventional designs of the escalator to which the present invention pertaines can be found in Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-19437 in which a tread board of some of the steps is moved up and downwardly at the landings, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-61266 in which one portion of the tread board is moved up and down between an inclided position and a horizontal position, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-19438 wherein a wheel stopper is raised above the tread surface, and these special steps are connected in an endless loop of ordinary steps to be circulatingly driven along a circulating path disposed in an escalator main frame.
During ordinary mode of operation of the above-discussed escalator system, the special, convertible steps serve as ordinary steps to carry passengers. During the wheel chair carrying mode of operation, the movable member such as the movable tread board, the wheel stopper and the drop-down tread board mounted on the convertible steps are brought into the respective operated position to carry the wheel chair. In order to convert the mode of operation of the convertible steps of the conventional escalator system between the ordinary mode and the wheel-chair carrying mode, the escalator must be stopped when the convertible steps are at the upper or lower lading to actuate the movable members between the actuated and inactuated positions, decreasing the transportation capacity of the escalator system and requiring some maneuver.